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The New Business. It’s Booming.

June 8, 2011 in Goals with 0 Comments

A co-worker and I have started a new business, D & L Lawn Care (website currently under development). We do mowing, trimming, brush removal, and deliver riverbed rock, among other similar activities. We have only been on the ground for about a week, and already we have two customers who have signed up for repeat business as well as two one time customers. Our first months profits are looking very good and we have yet to lift a chain saw.

In this short time, I have already learned a lot about being a business owner. I know, I only have one week under my belt, right?  I think I have benefited by working with someone who has a true entrepreneurial gift. Just observing him in action has taught me the following about starting a business:

  • Customers come from anywhere. This could be friends, families, strangers, goofy conversations, serious conversations, old connections, and basically anyone you run into.
  • You have to be your own best cheerleader. You have to talk about what you do to just about everyone you meet, and you have to tell them why you are going to be better than the rest.
  • You have to have no fear. Rejection? It happens. Uncharted territories? You will travel them. Failure? You betchya.
  • All advertising is expensive, except word of mouth.
  • Statistically, you get more business through word of mouth than any other form of advertising…
  • It is easier to put the cart before the horse.
  • You will have questions the Internet may not be able to answer.

Yea, it’s a lot. If things continue to go well, God willing, I will get to learn a lot more.

-Don-

Don, This is Why You Are NOT a Millionaire

June 2, 2011 in Goals with 0 Comments

Somehow at work, the conversation became private jets. You know, because a bunch of computer geeks have nothing better to talk about…

When someone approached me to ask what the conversation was about, I stated, “leer jets, you know, something none of us will ever have the money for.” At this point, a co-worker (who actually is a millionaire, by the way) told me my answer was the reason I would never be rich. At first I wanted to say something like, “that and, I do not believe in the ‘power of positive thinking’, Norman.”

But then it started to hit me, after all these years, my wife was right. I tend to stop when things are simply “good enough.” I often pull the plug when there is too much of a risk involved. I tend to be a “safe” person. I have told her before I was surprised we live in a big house because I always figured I would be lucky to be a home owner. I never thought I would make a decent income. I always thought I would continue the trend of poverty which I grew up in. I know these are gifts from God to take care of my ever expanding family. But none-the-less, they really surprise me. God has been good to me, despite me.

I believe in some respects, this has been a sin. See, I have often let life just happen. Monday turns to Tuesday, and things just happened. I spend too much time waiting for the big invite as opposed to being the one doing the inviting. Instead of taking the risk, I calculate it over and over again. I analyze the opportunity to death hoping it will pass my by before I can make a decision. I believe all great things done in the Kingdom have to be planned and steps have to be implemented. As a follower of Christ, time is critical. All days should have a purpose, to glorify God in all we do.

We, I, cannot simply sit around and watch life happen. I need to be intentional.

By God’s grace and because of His mercy, I will be.

-Don-

48 Days – Day 8

April 27, 2011 in 48 Days, Goals with 0 Comments

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

There are seven areas Dan Miller thinks are essential to achievement. Today’s assignment is to go through those seven areas and see where I stand and how I am contributing to each area.  I am going to go a step further and investigate ways I need to improve.

Here we go:

  1. Financial
    Of course this comes after I spent money on clothes, shoes and blew $3 at a gas station on a Cliff bar and a Coke. All without it being in my plans.  Honestly, this is an area I get streaky in. I do well to attempt to get us out of debt (got a ton of student loan debt) and then I spend about a month making no progress. I need to sit down with wife and go over budget and look at our plan. I would like to make some additional income to knock out debt faster.
    Mr. Miller suggests having a five year income goal, mine is to increase my income by 50%. This should not be too hard as I do not have an incredibly high income currently.

  2. Physical
    Just started working out again. I went up about ten pounds over the winter and have lost 3 of them (I am now at 170, do the math). Looking to get down to the 160 area and put on some muscle over the spring and summer.
  3. Personal Development
    I feel this has been at a bit of a standstill. I have not pursued any real education over the last couple of months. I started a book by John Frame and discovered it took more concentrating and study than I was ready for, so I put it down in favor of an easier read by John Stott. I chickened out on my development.
    I would like to do more studying and researching into being a better writer. Not just for blogs, but overall. I will include this on my reading goals for the remainder of the year. I would also like to begin my studies in learning Hebrew.

  4. Family
    Dropped. The. Ball.  I have not been as active or engaged with my kids as I would like to be. Sure, we play a game at night and I read to them, but I feel I spend more time correcting them (“don’t do that to your sister, put that down, don’t climb the refrigerator!”) than I do actually playing with them and teaching them.
    I am thankful my wife and I have had time to have good conversations. I feel our relationship, by God’s grace, gets stronger and stronger daily. I would like to take her out on a date as it has been awhile since we have gone out, just the two of us. I need to work that into my financial goals.
  5. Spiritual
    I do not have a good gauge to judge this right now. From the legalist standpoint, I would look pretty good. I read my Bible, pray, and participate in church activities, etc. On the surface, the world seems to be good. I do know I feel a bit of lack in my relationship with Christ. I want to know Him more and to glorify Him in more areas of my life. I know I have sin to kill. I would like more conversations to be intentional and Gospel centered (especially with non-Christians).  I would also like to simplify my life so I can be more generous with time and money, and fast more.
  6. Social
    I have come upon some challenges in the social area. My wife is helping me to push my boundaries more and to get out and be more social (I’m pretty introverted). I would like to “network” more with people who have similar interests. That is part of the reason behind this. I would also like to spend more time deepening current friendships and being helpful to those around me. I would like to get to know my neighbors better. I have lived here for two years and have only shallow relationships with most of those around me. I would say this is my weakest area of achievement.

  7. Career
    I am learning more skills which may get me higher pay in the future.  In turn, I am also learning about my love of writing and I am looking for ways to improve. I am hoping ot either transition to a higher paying position within my current field (IT), or making a switch altogether into something different. I am also praying about my future in ministry and what that might look like. I do not feel the calling to pastor or church plant has left me in any way.

This exercise is a easy, but insightful. I would recommend anyone out there take a swing at it. If you want, take one or more of the categories and put your responses to it in the comments.

-Don-

48 Days – Day 6, Part 2

April 18, 2011 in 48 Days, Goals with 0 Comments

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

Part two goes back to answering some questions at the end of chapter 3.  Before I get into the questions, I just wanted to say, while I have been somewhat cynical of the book, the exercises have helped me to realize some of my goals and dreams. I don’t know if I am realizing them in a way that makes me pursue them full out as a vocation, but I am realizing them in a way that makes me realize what I enjoy doing everyday, hopefully to God’s glory. Make sense? OK, now I will answer some questions.

  1. In today’s rapidly changing work environment, is it realistic to expect a job to provide more than a paycheck?
    I think the question, like most of these, can be answered on multiple levels. Of course the answer is, yes, it can provide more than a paycheck. It provides the opportunity to build relationships with people and to demonstrate Christ to them.
  2. Have you ever had a sense of calling in your life? How did you hear that calling?
    I was told from a young age I would be a pastor. I have had this told to me by a pastor, his wife, some friends in High School (when I was not even a Christian), a guy I worked with (before I was a Christian), a mentor (after I was a Christian), and other times. Other times I have had this calling confirmed through prayer by the Holy Spirit. I have also learned I can write and blog as part of my calling. This calling has only been working itself out in the last few years. It has been quieter, but maybe stronger. If you want, we could sit down and talk about it. Putting it into words on a short blog post is a bit of a challenge.
  3. Does God call only a few people?
    Don’t make me break out the doctrine on you. He has His elect and others are called according to His plan.
  4. Is it reasonable to expect our work to be part of the fulfillment of our calling?
    Sure, I would say it is no matter what. Our chief calling, as Christians, is to glorify God. We should be doing this at work.
  5. Do you currently have a job, a career, or a vocation?
    I would call it a job / career.  It is defiantly not a vocation.
  6. What does success mean for you this year?
    In terms of career, I want to be influential to my co-workers. In terms of calling, I want to finish writing my book an grow my blogs.
  7. Are you where you thought you’d be at this stage of life?
    Nah, I thought I would be a professional baseball player ;-)
    Seriously, I hoped I would be a pastor or church planter by now and also living a more generous life.
  8. Do you go home at night with a sense of meaning, purpose, and accomplishment?
    Eh, not so much.  But I think that is more my fault then that of my employers.
  9. If you want different results next year, what will you change in what you are doing now?
    For one, I will have to listen more to the Holy Spirit and work harder. I have some other goals, like writing a book, being debt free, and being more generous with my time and money. To make these happen, I am going to have to work harder and look for more opportunities to get a better income. Of course, this will also come with a need to pray more about these areas.

There you have it.  I am realizing my life needs to be more Gospel centered instead of career centered. Dan Miller does state in our book we need to shift our paradigm in such a direction. I am all for such a shift.

-Do-

Allow Me to Inspire You. 48 Days – Day 6, part 1

April 12, 2011 in 48 Days, Computer Nerd Stuff, Goals with 2 Comments

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

According to the checklist, I am supposed to do two things today. One is to answer the questions at the end of the chapter, and two, I am supposed to talk with two people in an inspiring manner about how I have a new understanding of vocation as it fits my calling. There is only one problem. I do not really have a new understanding of vocation. I maintain my belief that not all people get to simply do what they want to do for a living. I still believe many of us were called to be “tent makers” while living out our callings without the benefits of a paycheck for doing it. One main reason is, my “calling”is not something a person just jumps into into. Wanting to pastor or plant a church requires Jesus to make it happen. I do believe their is responsibility to take certain actions on my part, but not without the blessing and clear calling of the Holy Spirit.

I will tell you a story about what happened to me yesterday (April 11th, 2011). I was sent an email asking me to have a conversation about a particular task at work. This task is something I know how to do, and enjoy doing, but up until this point had not had an opportunity to do with my current employer. The task is called “imaging.” It is an IT concept where you can deploy an operating system (like Windows or Apple’s OS X) to a computer over a network.

I sat down and my boss asked me what I knew about imaging. We talked and I explained how my previous job used this method all the time. He asked me if I would set up a demo  so we could see how this could work in our computing environment. was told to watch some training videos we would talk about it later.

I went to my desk and pulled up some videos on my computer when my boss stopped by and dropped off a piece of a equipment for me to start testing with. I was floored! I had no idea I would get to start doing this so quickly. There where some other things I needed (like a static IP address. I know, nerd stuff…) which he provided, quickly, to me. I know this may  not make sense to most people, but I was giddy. When it comes to IT and computers, this is the kind of stuff I love to do. I downloaded the software I needed and started to set up the testing equipment. When quitting time came, I had a hard time pulling myself away from the task. I was enjoying it that much.

I know this is not necessarily my calling or what I was “made to do.”  But it is something I enjoy, several notches above my current job description. As I have stated before, I praise God that I have a good job with decent pay that provides for my family. Being able to do something I enjoy is simply an added blessing. This is why I do not entirely agree with Miller’s book. It seems to me we are to work hard to the glory of God, even if we do not like our jobs. I am reminded of Colossians 3:22 where Paul tells slaves to obey their masters in order to revere the Lord. I know slavery was not the same back in Paul’s day as much of it was voluntary in order to pay off debts. But I have a feeling very few slaves where able to indulge in a career path they most enjoyed.

I consider myself one of the blessed slaves who gets to do something he enjoys while also being able to live out my calling. I believe one of my callings is to preach, so I will be doing that at a local homeless shelter (starting this week!). One of them is to write, so I am writing at several websites (check out my other site). Neither of these brings a dime of income, but I love to do them and am thankful God has given me an outlet to do so.

Sola Dei Gloria (meaning, to God alone be the glory)!

-Don-

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